The Worst British Rifles

[Garvin]

The Airsporter, Merc, Vulcan, Osprey/Tracker could all have been Weihrauch-beaters if they had had better triggers/breech arrangements/internals.

Maybe the Austin Maxi could have beaten the BMW of its day if it had been different in all key respects too.

[career707lover]

Probably going to get slated for this but I have owned a lot of guns over the years and probably the worst was an Air Arms Prosport

I know a lot of people love them and its all about opinions but I hated it, the cocking lever always fell down, it was loud, didnt have open sights (ok a lot of guns dont have them and I knew about this beforehand), felt twangy and for the price I just felt the build quality was shite and the blueing faded very fast. Although im not a great shot the accuracy was poor too. Again this is only my opinion and I might have got a bad one but it was probably the worst £400 I have ever spent. One of the reason I vary rarely buy anything British made these days.

[I. J.]

The Service??? Now that was one of their better rifles. It was so good, the company apparently never made a penny out of the design.

Had the Supertarget been fitted with the trigger used for the Mark 3 made just before the Supertarget, it would have been a better rifle. It is still a classic though, although often oversprung by the factory.

John

The Service was just an over sized pistol. The design (transfer port etc) couldn't have been worse. O.K. so Webley made a loss with every one they produced - thats just bad marketing.
Agree about the Supertarget trigger though. Classic? Yes but that doesn't mean good.

[Geezer]

Maybe the Austin Maxi could have beaten the BMW of its day if it had been different in all key respects too.

:-)

Yes, left myself open for that.

But it is of course exactly what Webley finally did with the Omega, Longbow, Tomahawk, and Eclipse, and what BSA mostly did with the Superstar, Goldstar and Supersport. Only 5-20 years too late. After piddling about complacently with minor variants on the Hawk, Osprey, Mercury and Airsporter themes for far too long.

The Maxi isn't a bad example of the same short-sighted malaise. Conceptually a transverse-engine FWD hatchback in 1970 was a brilliant idea and ahead of its time. Should have been far better than a Cortina. But it was badly made, badly styled and used rubbish old engines to cut costs.

[Rickenbacker]

Were Loguns British or Australian? If British, the S-16 was a shitter.

[Hsing-ee]

Probably going to get slated for this but I have owned a lot of guns over the years and probably the worst was an Air Arms Prosport

I know a lot of people love them and its all about opinions but I hated it, the cocking lever always fell down, it was loud, didnt have open sights (ok a lot of guns dont have them and I knew about this beforehand), felt twangy and for the price I just felt the build quality was shite and the blueing faded very fast. Although im not a great shot the accuracy was poor too. Again this is only my opinion and I might have got a bad one but it was probably the worst £400 I have ever spent. One of the reason I vary rarely buy anything British made these days.

Sounds like you had a REALLY bad one. Are you sure it was a ProSport and not a DB4 wearing a wig in a dark alley?

I have never come across an Air Arms rifle that had shite build quality, what was wrong with it?

[Hsing-ee]

Maybe the Austin Maxi could have beaten the BMW of its day if it had been different in all key respects too.

The seats folded flat into a bed, allowing the stranded couple to entertain themselves while they waited for the RAC man on his British motorcycle, which also broke down on the way there. This was the Maxi advantage.

[Geezer]

Titan JB-1.

List LPE.

Parker-Hale Dragon. Sorry, Dragon fans, but I have one and it's a fascinating thing, but it's also really not very good at all.

And the S&P/Brocock air cartridge rifles. Nice to look at. Expensive, unreliable and inaccurate. I know. I had five of them over the years.

[Geezer]

The seats folded flat into a bed, allowing the stranded couple to entertain themselves while they waited for the RAC man on his British motorcycle, which also broke down on the way there. This was the Maxi advantage.

All 1970s cars were rubbish, with the possible exceptions of the Capri RS3100 and the 3-litre Granada coupe (but only ones with a vinyl roof).

[I. J.]

And the S&P/Brocock air cartridge rifles. Nice to look at. Expensive, unreliable and inaccurate. I know. I had five of them over the years.

How could I have forgot the S & P Galaxy, Saturn and the Lee Enfield rifle? Quite easily it seems.

[Josie & John]

The Service was just an over sized pistol. The design (transfer port etc) couldn't have been worse. O.K. so Webley made a loss with every one they produced - thats just bad marketing.
Agree about the Supertarget trigger though. Classic? Yes but that doesn't mean good.

I think Webley made a great job of utilising pistol patents to make firstly the Mark I rifle and then the Service. The rifle was made up to a quality rather than down to a price and is a classic example of British quality from the days when we made things. The design has many features that are unique to it and have always proved popular with contemporary users and later collectors.

We have a working bolt on a rifle that was loosely intended to resemble the Service rifle of the day, the quickest barrel change on any air rifle before or since, that I can think of and a choice of open or peep sight as standard. Considering the about turn air had to make upon discharge, performance was very good when compared to other contemporary designs. The barrel over cylinder design also reduced overall length, whilst retaining a very long barrel and the rifle could be taken down in seconds (a poacher's delight, had they been able to afford one!). The Service remains an accurate arm today and IMHO one of the best looking designs of air rifle ever built. Guess we'll just have to agree to disagree on this one Ian

John

[I. J.]

I think Webley made a great job of utilising pistol patents to make firstly the Mark I rifle and then the Service. The rifle was made up to a quality rather than down to a price and is a classic example of British quality from the days when we made things. Like the Titanic. :-) The design has many features that are unique to it and have always proved popular with contemporary users and later collectors.

The Service remains an accurate arm today and IMHO one of the best looking designs of air rifle ever built. Guess we'll just have to agree to disagree on this one Ian

John

Agree to disagree. This is the 'Gentlemans Section'. I wouldn't dared have post this in the General section. The riff raff would have ripped me apart. In this section we are more discerning and can have a discussion which doesn't involve hand bags or dummies. Whatever floats you boat and, in this case its Webleys. Enjoy.
If your down at Melbourne I will buy you a pint and we can discuss the good and many bad points of Webleys.
I did once see a Service that had been modified into a p.c.p. A R10 (?) system inserted into the stock. Now that was interesting.

ATB
Ian

[career707lover]

Sounds like you had a REALLY bad one. Are you sure it was a ProSport and not a DB4 wearing a wig in a dark alley?

I have never come across an Air Arms rifle that had shite build quality, what was wrong with it?

I know it was just really bad in almost every way apart from it looked quite nice. I think they must have let the apprentice make that one. It was my own fault really as with hindsight I should have returned it. But it was at a time when I started to realise that not all the airgun comic reviews were.......realistic....shall we say? So i just basically assumed they were all naff and they had given it a good write up as, well, they didnt give anything a bad write up did they?

I sold it and ended up buying an ASI Paratrooper which, believe it or not was better I think youre right though they have a great following so something must have been rotten in Denmark with that one. I've been let down with quite a lot of British made things though not just guns so, although I would love to buy British I just dont have any confidence in British made equipment anymore

[Phil Russell]

Someone mentioned the Dragon ... a very nice rifle, a tad heavy, but I am not a fan of its design when it comes to the valve block. Reminds me of the engine block on a car where you need to need to tighten the head down.
One I really like ... sorry to go off thread but someone may hate it ... is the Park RH91 (and by default the 93 as well). A poor man's Wiscombe maybe but very nice rifles.
The Service is a design classcs with excellent engineering.
Ones that I am not too fond of, but would never just throw away: Meteors and all those that you have to dismantle the trigger in order to strip them, apart from the early BSA / Lincoln Jeffries models that is. The 'trigger block' was the best invention ever.
Cheers, Phil

[Josie & John]

Agree to disagree. This is the 'Gentlemans Section'. I wouldn't dared have post this in the General section. The riff raff would have ripped me apart. In this section we are more discerning and can have a discussion which doesn't involve hand bags or dummies. Whatever floats you boat and, in this case its Webleys. Enjoy.
If your down at Melbourne I will buy you a pint and we can discuss the good and many bad points of Webleys.
I did once see a Service that had been modified into a p.c.p. A R10 (?) system inserted into the stock. Now that was interesting.

ATB
Ian

Gentlemen indeed sir. I think you're right about the general section and sometimes wonder how many on there actually shoot

Not sure if I'm going to Melbourne yet but if I do, I'll look forward to a good chat over a pint. Who knows I may even find another Webley for the collection!

Kind regards,

John